


Tumour

by Flywoman



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Cancer, Episode: s04e14 Memento Mori, Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1998-01-18
Updated: 1998-01-18
Packaged: 2017-10-20 12:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flywoman/pseuds/Flywoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knows that this is the only child that she will ever conceive and nourish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tumour

It waits there, silent  
Hidden behind clear blue eyes  
Nested like an egg  
In the warm depths of her skull  
Smooth, lopsided  
Incubating poisonous dwarf.  
Every so often  
She can feel it kick aggressively at the shell  
There is no pain  
Only a warm gush and a crimson stain  
Trickling over her lip with no warning

He thinks she doesn't know,  
Clutches that hope like a mother hen  
But she's seen her cycles cease without  
the regulated stream of jagged little pills  
Spiraling orange and green in shiny foil.  
She knows that this is the only child  
That she will ever conceive and nourish  
Toothless, sightless little ghoul  
Offspring of dispassionate insertion and withdrawal,  
An implantation outside the womb

She can mark the progression  
Of insidious development  
In pounds lost and radiation burns  
How can she feel so tired,  
Cushioned by so much sleep?  
It snoozes with her, inside her,  
Her own personal and intimate clock  
One day, something will trigger that alarm  
The tiny hammer will tap-tap-tap  
And death will leak out quietly  
The amniotic fluid of her newborn disease


End file.
